Use of Rabies Vaccines after Reconstitution and Storage

Storing freshly reconstituted purified chick embryo rabies vaccine at 4C for 1 week allowed use of!1 ampoule of 1.0 mL for 1 patient for day 0, 3, and 7 immunizations, repre-senting considerable savings in vaccine and also possibly allowing use of this cost-saving regimen in centers that see!1 rabies-exposed patient daily. The 90-day booster dose mandated in the current intradermal regimen may not be necessary if the day 28 dose is doubled, eliminating 1 clinic visit at no additional cost in vaccine. The Thai Red Cross Society’s intradermal rabies postexposure treatment schedule (TRC-ID) was approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1992 and consists of 0.1-mL tissue culture vaccine given at 2 lymphatic drainage sites on days 0, 3, and 7 and at 1 site on days 28 and 90. It is also known as the 2-2-2-0-2-1 ID regimen [1, 2]. TRC-ID is no